Day 97

Moved on to Exmouth today, to the Visitor Information Service, we said that we wanted to stay in the National Park, but we were told that they were full and the only way we would get a spot way to be at the gates at 8am. And that was it, not very helpful at all. Gerald eventually found out that there may have been a spot in a park across the road. Which we got.

So we went for a drive up to the light house, the view was magnificent. Exmouth was only established in 1967 for support for Harold E Holt US Naval Communication Station. But in WWII ships in the gulf were bombed and we saw what was left of the aircraft warning radar, it was destroyed by cyclone Vance in 1999.

Anyway while we were up at the lighthouse Gerald said there is a whale out there, which I pointed out there is a reef out there. But Him Who Knows Everything was proved right and we watch whales tail, flipper flapping and then broaching....excellent Then we booked into a caravan park just below the lighthouse and on the beach for four nights. We will do day trips to the National Park

Day 96

Moved on today, heading towards Exmouth to spend a couple of days just relaxing on the beach.

Did our shopping at Wollies and Coles, filled with Super Unleaded at $1.489, I am glad we don't us that very often.

Believe it or not but Gerald is one of the most thoughtful drivers on the road, as soon as someone comes up behind him he signals to them to pass as soon as its safe to do so and slows down. And its really nice when the drivers especially the roadtrain drives acknowledge you.

To night we are in Barradale Rest Area, and its huge, with a Dump Point, toilets and its on a river the Yannaire, but there are only a few pools now. But its very windy, Gerald did promise one guy that he would turn the wind off at 6.30pm

Day 95

Well it appears that the only way I can inform Telstra that the bill has been paid is via the net as "there are unusually long waits for an operator, please ring again". A friend suggested I do an add for Telstra Ha Ha. Its such a pity that there is a monopoly, I think I have said that before. Any way sent off the notification that it had been paid two ago, but got an automated reply saying that it could be up to two days before it comes effective.

A nothing day today caught up on the washing and we both read.

Day 94

Well I cant call Telstra because they have cut off our phones.@*%#. So into Karratha and had to find a Telstra shop not one there just a dealer so I have had to buy another sim card. I am so so pi**ed off.

Any way we found out the reason that everyone was at the boat ramp the other day they were waiting for the tide to go out and evidentially you can catch mud crabs and blue swimmer crabs.

Went out to Dampier today its only a few km from Karratha and its very nice, but the caravan park didn't seem to be very large. There seem to be lots of blocks of units for the workers and every unit had a boat.

On the way back into Karratha for about 5 km there were new houses being built. It appears that a room in a shared house can be up to $800 per week and they are hens teeth.

Day 93

Well for a second the sun went out this morning and there are clouds in the sky, how unusual.

I have already tried to call Telstra, but its not office hours maybe if I try in the middle of the night.

I have some little birds that keep popping in to check that I haven't dropped any crumbs

Day 92 Monday 17th August 2009

A great big motorhome arrived this morning and is backed in to us, so between the two of us we get a lot of lookers. Talking to Heath the owner/builder it took him 2 years of research before he started it.

Off to the Post Office and collected the mail. Murray has sent us the stickers for the bus a map of Tassie with Bridport marked.

OH no its on again with Telstra. A bill I paid in July I put in one too many 0 in the account number so of course its gone off someone else's. Murray tried to sort it out for me but almost busted a blood vessel trying to get through to the thick chick. So Gerald gets a call to say him mobile account is overdue, funny because the two mobiles and the house phone are on the one account. I explain to the girl what has happened she tells me I have to ring a number to get it reversed back to my credit card and pay it again. But the number she gave my is Telstra but it just keeps telling me the Telstra hours are and please ring back in office hours which I have been trying to do. So I print out the receipts and with the bill go looking for a Telstra Shop, you guessed it there is none in Karratha.

So if anyone can get through to Telstra on this number 08 83081414, please tell them to ring me.......please.

Day 91

Today we did a bit of tour of Karratha and found the shopping centre only Wollies Coles and Kmart open Gerald found some more Clive Cussler books and I got Gretel Killeen's book The Night My Bum Dropped, boy is that a hard read.

Went out to the boat ramp. There was no real beach lots of rock,with fossils in them, but as were there at about 4pm heaps of 4x4 arrived and got out their chairs, tables and BBQ's. I thought is might be a Stairway to the Moon but no so I don't have a clue.

Day 90

On to Karratha today I have booked ahead for a caravan park because by looking in the book it seems we may have trouble getting a spot.

First we call into the Whim Creek Hotel, we were going to have lunch there but their trading hours are from 3pm till 9pm...oh well saved a few dollars as we had all them things for salad rolls in the bus and a nice Vanilla Latte what more could you want. There were some cockatoos and galah there that were very chatty.

We are in the Philbara Caravan Park, very nice very spacious. We were going to check in and then go for a drive but we just sat outside and relaxed. The weather is perfect and Gerald had decided that we might stay for a while there is no hurry to get down any further.

Day 89

Had to ring the insurance company today because as of tomorrow our house had been unoccupied for 90 days and I had to pay a fee. That's ok. as we got a refund on the car as its not being used.

Today we drove round the places we went last night to see them in day light. Went back to the South Headland Shopping Centre and I managed to get a hair cut, I feel so much better. Gerald was suppose to be collecting my script but he had brought another couple of T Shirts ( that must make 30 in the bus), but in the pics he still seems to have the old favourites on. It was only 4.30 and all the shops were closing up, I have heard since they are trying to extend trading hours here in WA.

Over to Joy and Kevs for a few drinks and Kev downloaded a heap on music on my jump drive, enough to get us home with out hearing the same one twice. Great. The distances are so huge over here and once you get 5km from a major town you lost phone, internet and radio

Day 88

After I had finished typing yesterdays entry our neighbours came home and we started chatting...as you do... and Joy said that if you haven't seen Port Headland by night you have missed a great sight and straight away offer us her car. What a lovely person. Anyway Gerald had had a beer and we said maybe tomorrow night and she and Kev could come too.

Good as their word Kev came over and said if we still wanted the tour they would take us in about half an hour. Forgot to say Joy and Kev are living in the park as permanites and Joy is working for real estate and Kev is a roadtrain driver, they will be here for at least two years. Well anyway Joy drove and Kev gave us the commentary, which was very informative. Just little things like the two lines of traffic cones on the lawn in front of the BHP offices, they are for the workers they have to walk in between them from the carpark to work OH&S gone mad.

The light were wonderful and you wouldn't realize the place was so big. Gerald took some pics but they didn't come out that well.

Day 87

We booked for two nights here, so I was able to book myself in for a nail job. The little girl that did them asked, "Can you drive to Tasmania?" mmmmmm, but I will say she was a New Zealander, an item came on the radio about a plane crash in PNG she didn't have a clue where the Kakoda Trail was or what happened there in WWII, once again mmmmmm.

Back to the South Headland Shopping Centre for one of the best and largest Latte I have ever had. Into Coles to get some chicken schnitzels so we made it up to just over the $30 to get a voucher. Then we put in our scripts for all our needs, but one of mine they didn't have and the chemist in Port didn't have either so we will book for another couple of days and the script can be filled tomorrow.

We really like this area, there seems to be a breeze that keeps the temp down a bit. I am sitting outside typing this and Gerald has just cleaned his BBQ.

Day 86

On to Port Headland today. Never again am I going to stress about finding a place to stay. We went to the Port Headland Information Centre and they suggested Black Rock Park and it is in South Headland...not a problem. I hadn't even realised that they were two separate places. So next on the agenda was to find a shop that sold the Strong Boxes for the TV so Gerald could get another card to go into his new box. After two places he got the number for ...wait for it.....The Pay TV Guy who is totally mobile and will come to you. Which he did and fixed us up no problem and now we are happy little campers. Did a shop at Wollies and filled the bus with gas at a Coles BP but I didn't have any dockets.

Day 85

Well we have made twelve weeks. And today is a rest day. We are parked beside the De Grey River lovely spot with just a slight cooling breeze off the water. Forgot to say yesterday as we were turning in here a plane flew over and was mustering some stock, then later all these brahame cattle tramped through the parked buses and vans. Later we heard the truck coming out of the De Grey station then we saw the roadtrain cross the bridge.

I was going to toss a line in today but I started Lances first book Tears over the Kimberly's and couldn't put it down. Gerald caught up on some programmes that had been taped before we left home. He isn't having any luck with his TV, we could be home soon........

Day 84

After having morning tea cimminon scrolls at the station, we found out that Lance is an award winning author and has had two novels published and I purchased both books and had him sign them. He told us that when he first sent them to the publishers he was told to spice them up and add some sex if he wanted them to sell, especially in China, and now they have done exceedingly well.

Three couples included us left today and we were requested to put the "Sorry Full" sign up as we left. I think after a full house last night they wanted a quiet day. There is one couple that booked for one night there and have been there three weeks. The husband is having a great time tinkering with some of the old machinery and the wife was busy cooking and making jams and chutneys. They were still there when we left.

On to De Grey River for the night. Free camp

Day 83

Filled up with gas after much manoeuvring, some people are so ignorant. Found out when we got to the Roebuck Roadhouse it was cheaper there so EVERYTHING is so much dearer in Broom.

Dacks had flown to a cattle station owned by a friend of his and is managed by another Tasmanian and suggested that we stop in there for a visit.

We called into Munro Springs and they usually only have five vans or buses there but as we didn't require power and Lance, the manager, wanted some advise from
Gerald, they are both do the "brewing" and Dacks told Lance Gerald was the one to see. They have a nice pool there beautiful once you are in. Chatting to Cynthia Lances wife in the pool it turns out that they had been living in the Oatlands area about the same time we were there and we had several friends in common.

They run Braham on the station and after our BBQ tea a few of the cattle come into the home paddock and "mow" the grass.

Day 82

Decided that today we would go to Cable Beach for a fish. So to the fish shop for bait, and we brought a shirts.

That's the little car Denise and Tony brought, to travel home in. Betty Boo

Down to the beach and Tony waded in to chest height to cast the rod and a few minutes later the tide had gone out and the bait was almost on the beach. He would have never caught anything because Denise and I were swimming just there. The water was absolutely lovely. We had Subway for lunch on the beach the Caroline and Dacks arrived and they went for a swim too.

Back to the park and collected a change of clothes and showered at Tony and Denises. Sent Tony down and he got us a table and then Caroline and Dacks arrived and we had a feed, then the stairway....no where near as good as last night.
Gerald took a heap of pics but when I downloaded them they were blurry maybe be the operator was a little blurry at the time.

Perfect weather warm days and cool nights.

Day 81

Never again am I going to stress about accommodation. We just rocked up to the PCYC overflow caravan park and no problem getting a spot.

This morning Tony and Denise called round and took us to the Telstra in Broom, guess what it was closed. But suggested we went to a shopping centre and go to a phone shop there. Lucky the girl there realised that I had the wrong code to be able to text and she fixed that.

Went for a drive to Cable Beach and had a look and then to the Divers Tavern, then back to the hotel on Roebuck bay where Tony and Denise are staying. They had half price oysters so we all had a dozen Killpatrick oysters each...yummmmm.

It was the night before the Stairway to the Moon but it was still very spectacular.

Day 80

Moved off this morning heading for Broome. We have been told that getting a site in Broome at this time is almost impossible, but did hear about the overflow parks so we headed to the Broome information centre and were told that there were parks with vacancies. So forget about stressing out.

Found some friends from Bridport Denise and Tony at a café only to find our neighbours at the resort next door Caroline and Dacks were there too. So I asked "Who's looking after Skitz (our cat that has moved to the Resort) "Auntie Jenny I was told.

So for the three couples to get to Broom we have done it three different ways. Us by our bus on the road, Denise and Tony, by sea on Matty and Colleens boat Blackheart and Caroline and Dacks by air they flew in by Dacks own helicopter.

We are in the PCYC overflow park.

Got my phone on Monday and my old phone has turned up at Katherine only a month late..BUT I can't get my new phone to send texts AHHHHHH. Give me a Motorola any day.

Day 79

Up early for breakfast, bacon, eggs, tomato and toast, tea coffee juice.

Back on the seaplane for a water take off on Talbot Bay and a flight round the Buccaneer Archipelago and back to Derby. Wow how good was that. Not exactly as the broachers described but the four advertised trips have been brought out and absorbed and now there are just two that do it. It was our birthday pressies to each other and we would do it again with Kimberley Extreme.

Quick look at the Prisoner Boad Tree and the longest water trough in the Southern Hemisphere

On the road again and just as far as Nillibubbica Rest Area stopped there early afternoon and watched the vans and buses arrive. There was a brand new Nullarbor Winnebago that pulled in and after a while Doug the owner came over for a chat and we did the looking at each others buses it was there first trip too. But they are going the other way.

What a day. loved every minute of it.

Day 78

Well first stop today was the post office and if I hadn't seen the card I still wouldn't have a phone. The silly girl had completely the wrong name on the package luckily I had the registered number and was at last able to collect my phone wack o, and Geralds pills were there too.

We were picked up in a mini bus and taken to the airport and there were eight of us on the flight out to the falls. We flew over the mud flaps they were awesome.


After we put our drinks on ice (BYO) we went on a boat like a jet boat through the falls the first wasn't running very fast so he took us through the second and half way though he cut the engines back and we were just hanging the water was flowing out at about 20 knots and we were just stationary there. EXCELLENT Showers for those that got wet. Us only a little as we were at the back because of Geralds back. If I did it again I would wear longer shorts my legs stuck to the vinyl when we were tossed us about like they do in NZ on the Jet Boats. You sat on them, seats, like you are riding a horse and hung on for dear life.

Back to the Kimberly Cat and Barra Shack our accommodation for the night, get drinkies and on to a very flash party boat with a fringe on top and we cruised the waterways.

Now for the shark feeding, they tell us there are some times 13 there, but looking at their mouths us Tassies would call them a breed of Sleepy Joe's, they would only suck you to death.

Back to the main boats for nibblies and drinks. Then a lovely soup, Barra with salads and potato bake. Yum, probably a plate of cheese to finish would have just the icing on the cake.

Would you believe that my camera decided no to work as soon as we landed...typical

Day 77

Well just filling in another day till our trip. Went for a drive round the town to look at the town. There is a golf course here designed by some famous Western Australian golfer its called the Boab course. So we went and had a look. Wow the complex was huge. There was in the complex, golf, tennis, netball, lawn bowls,horse racing, speedway and basketball under lights. The stadium had a roof but no walls.

Day 76

Not a lot today. Washing and just lazing around watching DVD's.

Its very interesting just sitting in the bus and watching the people walk past and the different types of vehicles and dogs. They are allowed in this park, makes me a bit sad.

There are magnificent sunsets here and just where we are parked is the best spot to see and film then so there is always someone new for Gerald to talk to...yes that right Gerald, he is the chatty one and he said he wouldn't be.

Day 75

Moved to a powered site this morning then went and had a look at the town. Went and had a look at the wharf, there is a 12ft tide. The pic is one of the tour boats, isn't the water muddy at low tide. While we were there Colleen Bayles called and they were just passing Cape Leveque about 80 to 100 km from us in their boat Blackheart, on their way to Broom, we pretended to wave to each other.

We went to the information centre and I got a numbers and address of a place I could have my eyebrows done. Don't laugh I was getting a bit shaggy.

Once again to the Post Office and guess what no pills for Gerald or phone for me, ahhhhh.

Day 74

Booked our trip to the Horizontal Falls but we have to wait till Monday.

While travelling to Derby we passed through wild horse on the side of the road and they didn't look up as we passed even though Gerald blew the horn.

One other thing we noticed as we go further west the boab trees seem to have more leaves.

One again when phoning ahead for a spot in a caravan park they wont take bookings, but will only say that they have space. We ended up in the Kimberly Entrance park but on an unpowered site for the first night.